Despite discussions that a company spokesman said continued into the evening Wednesday, Comcast SportsNet Houston officials were unable to expand the new network's list of cable subscribers prior to the regular-season opener against the Pistons.

With carriage limited to Comcast, Phonoscope and a collection of smaller systems, only about 40 percent of Houston's roughly 2.2 million television households had access to the first Rockets game on the new network, owned by the Rockets, Astros and NBC Sports Group.

Still unsigned are DirecTV, Dish Network, AT&T U-verse and a collection of smaller cable companies in the area.

"There's a lot of back and forth (with providers)," a company spokesman said. "We're continuing to work, and everybody is after the same goal of trying to make this happen."

Start surprises healthy Morris

When Rockets coach Kevin McHale pulled aside Marcus Morris on Wednesday to tell him he would be starting against the Pistons, Morris understandably thought McHale was kidding.

He wasn't. With Patrick Patterson out with a strained left quad muscle, Morris went from rarely playing last season to hurt in the preseason to starting the opener.

"There were a couple times I was in the room by myself, just thinking, 'Man, I can't catch a break,' " Morris said of the nearly three weeks he missed with a sprained and bruised ankle. "I feel like it's time now. I'm getting a chance to start, a chance to show people what I can do and that I changed from last year.

"I was a little concerned. In my mind, I just said, 'I'm just going to work, continue to do the same things I was doing before I got hurt and do the best I can to get back.' It feels good. I've been working hard to get back. The last couple practices, I worked hard. I'm ready to get out and play."

Rookie Terrence Jones had started the preseason games Patterson missed when Morris was out.

"I thought Marcus had a great camp before he got hurt," McHale said. "He came in in great shape, really worked hard. I thought it was a good time to reward him."

Options exercised, but not Aldrich's

The Rockets officially picked up their 2013-14 options on the rookie contracts of Patrick Patterson and Marcus Morris but opted not to pick up the option on newly acquired Cole Aldrich

Aldrich is signed for this season, but picking up his option for next season would have guaranteed him $3.245 million in 2013-14 and made him the fourth-highest paid player on the team after James Harden, Jeremy Lin and Omer Asik

Patterson signed for a fourth season worth $3,105,302 and Morris for a third season worth $1,987,320.

Aldrich played in 44 games in his first two NBA seasons, averaging 2.2 points and 1.8 rebounds. He is expected to be a part of the Rockets' rotation when they want a traditional center off the bench behind Omer Asik

McHale hopes overhaul done

With James Harden signed for six seasons beginning with Wednesday's season opener, coach Kevin McHale hoped the deal marked the end of the offseason overhauls.

"Our goal is to do a good enough job as a staff that we win, make the playoffs, develop the young guys and that we never, ever, ever come to camp with 13 new guys," McHale said.

"We'd like to come back to camp with three new guys, establish a culture of work, a culture of competing nightly and get guys that fit that culture, bring in two or three new guys as opposed to 13 new guys."

Jonathan Feigen has been the Rockets beat writer since 1998 and a basketball nut since before Willis Reed limped out for Game 7. He became a sports writer because the reporter that was supposed to cover the University of Delaware basketball team decided to instead play one more season of college lacrosse and has never looked back.

Feigen, who has won APSE, APME and United States Basketball Writers Association awards from El Campo to Houston, came to Texas in 1981 to cover the Rice Birds, was Sports Editor in Garland before moving to Dallas to cover everything from the final hurrah of the Southwest Conference to SMU after the death penalty.

After joining the Houston Chronicle in 1990, Feigen has covered the demise of the SWC, the rise of the Big 12 and the Rockets at their championship best.